May 14, 2021
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,
We strongly support the United Nations and the resolutions on human rights protection, as nongovernmental organizations continue working to alleviate humanitarian sufferings in different regions around the world.
Throughout the year, there were reports of extrajudicial executions, excessive use of force, and unlawful killings by security forces in Venezuela due to the ongoing political crisis in the region. Political activists, journalists, and health workers who expressed opposition to government policies were subjected to repressive measures such as criminalization, unfair trials, and arbitrary detention.
The humanitarian crisis became even worse as a result of widespread service shortages and high levels of impoverishment. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these problems, as well as the ongoing diminishing of health-care infrastructure. Torture and other inhumane acts have been reported, as well as the enforced disappearance of those arbitrarily detained. Human rights defenders have been ostracized, and their work has been hindered.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela found sufficient evidence to prove that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela since 2014, and that President Nicolas Maduro and senior military and government personnel ordered or contributed to the crimes detailed in the report.
Arbitrary detentions were still being used as part of a repressive policy aimed at dissidents. According to the Venezuelan human rights organization Penal Forum, there had been 413 arbitrary, politically motivated arrests, with the number increasing after the declaration of a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020.
Enforced disappearances, incommunicado imprisonment, and isolation during the early phases of detention also have continued, raising the possibility of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of prisoners.
Torture to garner confessions or incriminating testimony were reported. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented 16 cases in which methods such as physical abuse, electrocution, asphyxiation, and sexual violence were implemented.
Police, military, and armed groups continued to use extreme and illegal force against protesters. The authorities did nothing to prevent this from happening.
Women human rights defenders continue to face threats and ostracism. According to the Centre for Defenders and Justice, more than 100 attacks against women human rights defenders had occurred, including criminalization, verbal abuse, digital attacks, and arbitrary detention.
Over the course of the past years, civil society organizations have expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Venezuela, and have called for a credible list based on UN-documented evidence. We are saddened that, rather than addressing these concerns, human rights violations in Venezuela appear to have increased.
We are deeply disappointed and troubled by the humanitarian situation in Venezuela. We are writing to urge you to consider new measures that protect human rights in Venezuela. We also urge you to take steps to ensure that going forward, human rights violations won’t occur again.
There were some promising efforts to solve the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, such as those prompted by the Vatican in 2016, but they were held back by the US and its allies who were in favour of a regime change. If there is to be a feasible solution to the continuing crisis in Venezuela, this strategy must change.
International actors should support negotiations between the Venezuelan government and its opponents which will lead the country to finally emerge from its political and economic crisis for the sake of the Venezuelan people, the region, which will, therefor, lead to human rights enhancements.
Sincerely,
Washington Center For Human Rights.